Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
Several hundred miners attacked company security guards with wooden clubs and threw eggs outside the headquarters of mining group KGHM where CEO Herbert Wirth was meeting union leaders over a pay dispute.
Unions want more than the 4.6 percent rise offered by Europe’s No. 2 copper miner, which sees its profit doubling this year to a record 8.4 billion zlotys ($3.16 billion).
